Where a mobile terminal in a call state moves from a service area (a cell boundary) of a corresponding base station to a service area of another adjacent base station, a handover management issue of changing a communication path to the adjacent base station, to which the mobile terminal moves in order to maintain a call, occurs. Accordingly, a mechanism to exchange handover information between a mobile terminal and a network may be needed for a seamless call in a mobile environment.
Typically, to exchange handover information, a protocol of a lower layer such as a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol of a data link layer is used.
However, where the protocol of the lower layer is used, a data transmission-related mechanism of the lower layer related to a handover in several networks may need to be modified for each network. For example, where the handover information is exchanged using a protocol of a data link layer, MAC may need to be modified.
Where an event, a command, and an information mechanism of the handover such as a Media Independent Handover (MIH) were intended to be used, a detailed mechanism with respect to a message exchange in an application layer could not be conventionally provided. This reduces the applicability of communication between interior multi-layers in a mobile terminal or between mobile terminals in the same network.
Accordingly, there is needed a mobile terminal and a network device for transceiving handover information where a need for modifying a data transmission mechanism of a lower layer is removed.